Sarkozy calls for EU force against natural disasters

Answering Ban Ki Moon’s call to the international community to step up aid to Pakistan, French President Nicolas Sarkozy appealed to the European Union on Sunday to establish a rapid reaction force for natural disasters such as earthquakes, wildfires and floods.

Photo: Reuters

France has already pledged immediate aid to flood victims in Pakistan, but Sarkozy said that the European Union needs to work together to help victims of other natural disasters, such as the recent wildfires in Russia and the Haiti earthquake.

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02:27

Interview: Ariane Rummery, UNHCR

Nicola Fathers

"We must take the necessary measures and build a real EU reaction force... that draws on the resources of the member states," Sarkozy said in the letter to EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

The United Nations says Pakistan needs 460 million dollars to deal with the immediate aftermath of the floods, and warned that billions more will be needed for long-term restoration.

But aid has been slow in coming.

Ariane Rummery, press officer for the UN Refugee Agency in Pakistan, told RFI that the UN's appeal for short-term aid has only received 27 per cent of the money it needs so far.

Rummery said the number of people affected by the flooding will increase as “waters move downwards” towards Sindh and the Punjab provinces. She stressed that the continuing bad weather, coupled with poor and damaged infastructure, means that "some people are yet to receive emergency aid". 

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said it feared that Pakistan was on the brink of a "second wave of death" unless more donor funds materialise.

It estimates that up to 3.5 million children are at high risk from deadly water-borne diseases such as cholera, typhoid, and hepatitis A and E.

Rummery said that many people have been without basic emergency aid for two weeks now. She said that alongside the basics of clean water, shelter and food, donors must be ready to give aid to “people who are trying to get home and need help getting back on their feet."